It's not every day that a small hamlet in the Missouri Ozarks is in the middle of everything, but that was the case for tiny Wright County on Wednesday as officials from the nation's capital unveiled a marker designating a spot in the county as the center of population in the United States.
Dignitaries from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau, including the agency's director, Robert Santos, officially debuted the red granite marker in Hartville, Missouri. With a population of 594 residents in 2020, the county seat is located 14.6 miles (23.5 kilometers) from the actual spot calculated following the 2020 census.
